Little Lillian
by anacat
Summary: Lillian was eleven when she first met the The tardis stole her like she stole him, but she did more than that, in the end, she saved
1. Chapter 1

Outside it was quiet. A soft breeze blew the crisp red leaves from the silvery branches that caressed the low clouds with thin, tall fingers. The fallen leaves danced and twirled in the chill air, playfully drawing a young girl further along the path, where they then circled a large blue box before drifting away into the clouds.

The girl stopped at looked up at the strange structure in front of her, sweeping her short brown hair away from her eyes. It was all blue, with the words 'police -public call- box' written along the top just above a small set of windows. To one side it had a rectangular white label with small writing, the only bit of which caught her eye was 'free for use of public'. She could hear voices coming from inside, loud voices that seemed to be arguing.

Just then the door swung open, making the girl gasp in surprise. A tall slim man stood at the door, facing inside and yelling something about his box not working. He wore a brown jacket with dark elbow patches and a strange hat. He turned around and stopped suddenly, aware of the young girl staring at him. 'I like your bow.' She pointed to the neat red bow around his neck. The corner of his mouth curled up into a smug smile and he adjusted it proudly. 'I'm glad, bow ties are cool.' He continued to smile at her as he stepped further out of the box and let the door close.

Looking over both of his shoulders at the empty park he lowered himself down onto one knee and ran a hand through his roughly combed hair. One of his eyebrows was raised as if he was examining the girl, like there was something strange about her. 'Are you a policeman?' The girl asked finally, breaking the silence. 'No.' he replied flatly.

'Then why were you in a police box? Are you a criminal?' Her naivety made him chuckle softly as he shook his head. 'I'm not a criminal, although there are a few people who would care to disagree with that, actually quite a lot of them would.'

'Then what's with the blue box?' She asked in the same tone, knowing he hadn't answered her question.

He squinted his eyes and sucked in a breath as if he were about to ask a question, but hesitated. 'You can see my box?' He asked quite slowly, trying to make sense of it himself. The girl nodded, she could see it plain as day. 'How?' The man stood up and looked at the strange blueness with a quizzical look, as if it were the box's fault that he was so confused. Almost in response, the door swung open and a strange noise came from inside.

The girl caught a glance through the open door and gasped. The man shot back into the box with clumsy speed and fiddled with a multitude of brightly flashing switches and buttons, mumbling loudly to himself after he almost tripped over. The girl followed him and stopped in awe of the vastness of the room. 'It's bigger on the inside.' She breathed, her eyes wide with wonder. The door closed abruptly, catching the man's attention, but not for long as a loud warping sound started to echo throughout the room. 'No no no!' She watched him yell at the nothingness around him. 'Not now!'

Everything began to shake and shudder, making the girl loose balance. The man caught her as she was flung sideways and held on tightly to a metal rail to support them both. The box swayed violently back and forth, so much that the young girl screamed as the noise got louder to drown it out. There was a rough jolt before everything stopped shaking, still and solid like it had never moved an inch. The man let her go and leapt over to the control panel with all the buttons and switches. 'Sometimes I wonder if you ever listen to me at all!' He shouted sternly at it. 'What am I going to do about-' He paused mid rant and turned to the girl, his anger had disappeared suddenly and had been replaced by genuine curiosity.

He wiggled the red fabric at his neck. 'What is your name fellow bow tie enthusiast?' His silliness made her laugh. 'Lillian.' She half-whispered. He smiled widely. 'What a beautiful name, Lillian. Never shorten it.' He quickly turned back to the controls, realising he was distracting himself. 'Anyway, what am I going to do about Lillian? Why would you even consider leaving with a young girl? I'm normally alright when it's strangers of an adult age, but I'm pretty sure this counts as kidnapping!' Lillian put two hands on the control panel and a strange pillar protruding out of its centre lit up. 'Oh she likes you, thats the trouble.' He said sourly. Lillian wore a look of utter confusement. 'Who?'

'Oh, right, I haven't introduced you two. Lillian meet the tardis, she seems to know you so that makes life easier for me.' He was gesturing to the whole of the room, and for a moment Lillian thought he was talking about his box. 'You're mad.' She stated plainly to him, but he didn't seem to mind. 'All the best people are mad.'

Finally she asked a question that would have been obvious to ask at the very beginning. 'What is this box?'

'A spaceship.' Lillian blinked and convinced herself that she had heard wrong.

'A what?'

'A spaceship, you know, a ship that goes into space.' She shook her head in disbelief.

'Tardis stands for time and relative dimension in space. This is a box that can travel through space and time. Wonderful isn't it?' He beamed with pride and joy as he walked around gesturing to everything he saw. Lillian just stared back at him blankly.

He brought his hands together in a single clap. 'How old are you by the way?' He realised that she probably had no idea what he was on about. 'Eleven.' She replied with a toneless voice.

'You don't know how that amuses me' He laughed but she didn't seem impressed. 'Oh well then I should get you home.' Lillian stopped him before he could run to the controls.

'Wait. Prove it.'

'What?'

'Prove that you can travel through time and space.'

'Thats not hard.' He began to walk towards the door.

'Wait.' She repeated. The man stopped in his tracks and simply turned his head to face her. 'Who are you?' A grin crept onto his face like no other she'd seen before.

'I am the last of the timelords from the planet gallifrey. I am over 900 years old and I've seen things and done things that would melt your beautifully little child mind.' He was now crouched to her height, but she raised an eyebrow, he still hadn't answered her question. 'But-' he continued seeing she was a stubborn one, 'you can call me Doctor.' Lillian wrinkled her nose, puzzled. The man stood up to his full height and placed one hand on the door, frozen, just waiting for it.

'Doctor who?'


	2. Chapter 2

Her empty question was met by the purple-pink of a foreign sky. Along the horizon peaked a range of glassly mountains, the warm hues of the sky mirrored through their translucent surface. In the close distance elegant spires soared from the green grassy ground and touched the magenta air with a delicate intimacy.

'Welcome to Apalapucia, voted second in the Top Ten Destinations for The Discerning Space Traveller. It's one of the most beautiful paradise planets in the universe, and would you look at that, the Chen7 outbreak's finally been taken care of. High time too, the last time I came here-' His soft voiced faded to a whisper as a dark cloud passed over his face. 'Well, there was a little trouble.' The cloud passed and he paced impatiently forward as he spoke. 'There always is, you know, I think this is one of the very rare moments where there actually isn't any, or have I just jinxed that? Oh wait, no I'm not superstitious, I forget.'

Lillian walked out into the path, between an array of silver colonnades that seemed to bind the world before her to the sky. 'This isn't earth, is it?' He turned to her, aghast.

'No its Apalapucia, weren't you listening? How could you even ask such a question?' He reached out and poked her head. 'Silly.'

'So do you do this often? Travel through space I mean?' He stopped and cocked his head pensively. 'You could say that.'

'So what do you do while you're there?' That one took a little more time to answer.

'All sorts of things, I save planets, aliens, the day usually.' She narrowed her eyes at him with a slight disbelief but then let out a little laugh.

'You're funny.' She giggled. He just lifted his strange little hat and flicked his hair back purposefully with a smile. 'Well I have had a long time to practise.' His smile was smug.

'So you're a timelord, does that make you an alien?'

'Yes, it does.' He seemed more excited at that than she did.

'You don't look like an alien though.' As mad as he may be, to Lillian he looked no different in appearance than any other man, apart from the fact he liked to wear strange hats and bows around his neck. 'Maybe not on the outside, but inside I'm an alien.' He made a small gagging gesture. 'Urgh, that sounded mushy.' Lillian giggled again. 'No what I meant was I have two hearts, whereas you, have only one.' He pointed at her chest where her heart would be to make a point. Lillian was momentarily baffled by the concept of being able to feel two heartbeats and a flood of questions washed over her. Is it painful? If he has a heart attack in one, does the other one keep him alive? Or does he need both to be working to live? Could he even die?

But she didn't have a chance to ask any of them as he continued to walk forwards, awed by the picturesque scene before him.

Lillian didn't follow, she turned around and saw the large silver building behind her for the first time. It was huge, and about as ornate as her left thumb. Even then it was still astounding with its tasteful and sophisticated architecture. 'Over there you see, are of course the Glasmir mountains, beautiful aren't they, like glass.' Hands on his hips, turning up the back of his jacket, he admired the view.

'Glass isn't very beautiful, its clear and plain, it breaks easily too.' Lillian was still staring at the looming building. A large hostile door sat directly in front of her, a small red light flashing above it. 'Well that's not true, glass can be very beautiful and strong, you've obviously never been to the 1800's, when glass was very beautiful indeed.' The sounds of footsteps were coming from the other side of the door, making Lillian take a step back. He leaned over a small balcony to take in the scenery. 'I remember meeting this london glass cameo maker back in 1889-' But he was interrupted before he could finish.

'Um, Doctor?'

The door disappeared into the wall seamlessly and a handful of white-clad soldiers surrounded them with an ominous symmetry. The Doctor threw up his hands to slowly walk backwards without arousing any trouble and Lillian copied. 'What's going on? I thought this was a paradise planet, this level of security is over the standards of your planets regulation.' They both stopped when their backs touched. Lillian looked up at him, his tone had changed and become more serious. He saw her out of the corner of his eye. 'Don't worry.' He whispered to her in his usuals tone, his mouth seeming not to move, but she saw the fine edges of a smile appear on his face.

A short slim man parted his way into the circle of soldiers, wearing a suit of the same colour. 'Apalapucia has been sanctioned for extra security after the outbreak.' The man spoke with a stale authority that made a chill shiver run up Lillian's spine. 'Any visitor seeking entrance must now hold a valid pass and have certain permissions to even think about setting foot on this planet. Now, where are yours?'

Lillian felt him step forward, his arms were lowered and he was reaching into his pocket. The soldiers were tracing his every moment with the strange looking weapons that each one clutched tightly to their chest. He brought out a small folded object. The man stepped forward as the Doctor flicked his wrist and thing in his hand jerked open.

It was blank. Lillian scrunched up her face in puzzlement. How could a blank piece of paper help them? To her surprise the man took a step back in slight shock. 'Come with me.' His authoritative tone snapped as he turned on his heels and led them both through the open door, the soldiers filling the space around them in two orderly lines.


	3. Chapter 3

'Welcome general to Base: AI. You brought your daughter along on federal business?'

'Um, yes well I had hoped to show her -my daughter- the paradise part of this planet afterwards.'

'Well, I'm afraid there'll be no time for it. There's a bit of a crisis in action.'

'Isn't there always.'

Voices murmured from the end of the corridor. People rushed from desk to desk, where data was set up on holographic screens of all different shapes and sizes. They were yelling across the room to one another as the group was marched in. 'Sir, we've had another report, this one from Proxima 2.' A young woman in white walked up to the man in front and held out a clipboard. He snatched it from her hand, a baffled look stitched to his face. 'Another one? I want the full report added the the list immediately.' The woman paced briskly off into the chaos.

'What's going on in here? It looks like war just broke out.' The Doctor broke free of the wall of white and stepped in front of a charted system hovering on a desk. 'Well general,' The man in white that had led them in there began his long explanation. 'It all started a few months ago, when every planet received a report from an unnamed human colony somewhere in the fostrix galaxy. It was an illegal colony, so was never registered until their distress signals arrived, followed shortly by a report stating that every member had been eliminated by an unknown source. But we have reason to believe that a small craft did escape, we think it might contain the cause of the whole incident. And now we have multiple ones popping up everywhere, we think they might be linked.' The man walked over a large hologram in the centre of the room and brought up evidence to back up his points.

Lillian stared at the changing images, they were copies of the transmissions and reports received and so didn't interest her much. What she did realise what that a few of them were scribbled in a strange writing that she didn't recognise at all. 'So why send them everywhere? Better question yet, why is Apalapucia suddenly a secret universal military base?'

The man raised an eyebrow, a general would have been briefed about this all. 'Since the first incident we've been getting numerous reports following a similar story. But in these, something has been stolen, in each and every single one of them. The strange thing is that none of them have any idea what was stolen.'

'How can they know that something was stolen without knowing what that something is?' Lillian finally spoke, which surprised the man who simply looked at her and then back to the Doctor.

'Maybe we should get someone to take her for a moment, while we discuss the rest. It's not really a conversation fit for children.' Lillian crossed her arms in offense. 'I'm not one to entrust the safety of a child to a stranger.' The Doctor used a foreign tone, it was stiff and serious, he was really going along with his role. The man held up his hands in a calming gesture. 'Please, we have the finest security here, she'll be in good hands. You can leave her with the captain, I'm told he's very charismatic, perfect for children.' He waved a passing member of staff to go and chase up this 'captain'. 'I'm not sure that's such a good idea-' but before the Doctor could finish a familiar voice barreled into the room, dropping it to silence.

'Doctor!'

There stood a tall well-built man, with arms outstretched with an exaggerated open grin on his chiseled face. 'What's he doing here?' Lillian heard the Doctor mumble dismally under his breath. She watched as the tall man ran dramatically over to where they were standing and wrapped his arms around the Doctor, despite his struggled attempt to stop him. 'Jack? What are you doing in Apalapucia?'

'Well I came for the beautiful scenery, the relaxing picturesque atmosphere, I mean really, what wouldn't I do here.'

The man in white took a step forward. 'Captain, you know the general?'

'General?' Jack cocked his head in confusion, but then realisation suddenly struck him. 'Oh, yes, the general and I go back… a long time.' He put his hands on his hips and cleared his throat nonchalantly. 'Well then, I'm sure you'll entrust an old friend. This conversation really does need to be said in private.'

The Doctor raised an eyebrow at the man. 'If you've known Jack as long as I have you'd never entrust him with anyone, let alone a little girl.' Jack threw out his hands again. 'Oh come on doc- I mean general! Why don't I show you round before you get down to business, then you can decide. Is that alright with you major?' He gestured to the man in white, who stared up at the ceiling pensively for a moment. 'Very well then, I'll see back here in an hour.'

'Excellent.'

Jack pointed his arms in the direction of a small door on the other side of the room. 'Shall we?' He held on to the Doctors arm before he could walk ahead, leaving him glaring at him with a mixed puzzlement. 'Ladies first.' Jack raised his eyebrows to give him a look that suggested it was a mere courtesy. He bent down on one knee and addressed Lillian directly, a sweet grin pushing up his cheeks and curving his eyes in a rosy manner. 'So what's your name cupcake?' Lillian rolled her eyes. 'I'm Lillian and I'm not a cupcake.' She barged past him with a quick flick of her short brown hair and walked impatiently to the door.

The Doctor let out a satisfied laugh. 'She's adorable.' Jack said, still a little in shock. The Doctor was still laughing as Jack stood up, and then continued to followed Lillian to the door, a smug smile etched onto his face. 'She's brilliant.'


	4. Chapter 4

'And this is the huge office that I asked for.' Jack gestured grandly to the tiny room he had led them into. 'Don't you just love it when you get exactly what you want.'

'And I thought the tardis was bigger on the inside.' Lillian muttered sarcastically, folding her arms crossly. She had expected space travel to be more fun, and so far, being escorted out of an interesting alien conversation wasn't cutting it.

'Yes, yes, it's very lovely. Now can you explain what you're actually doing here?' The Doctor walked over to a large wheeled office chair and sat down, his hands resting behind his head and his feet propped up on the desk. 'Can't a time agent just appear on a planet in the middle of a crisis without being accused of having an alternative purpose any more?' Jack sat down on a chair in the opposite corner of the room and reached out over a small table adorned with a bowl of fruit.

'No.'

Jack picked up an apple and glanced at Lillian who was stood staring at an offline hologram frame. 'Want one?' He didn't wait for an answer before chucking it skilfully towards her, where she just managed to catch it. She stared at it suspiciously. He raised his eyebrows and picked one for himself. 'An apple a day keeps the doctor away.' The loud crunch of him taking a bite out of it echoed in the tiny room. Lillian shot a glance at the Doctor who was still staring at Jack, waiting for an answer. 'Ergh!' She dropped the apple in disgust, she didn't want the Doctor to go away. Jack held one up for the Doctor whose expression mirrored Lillian's. 'Apples are rubbish.'

He sat up properly and leaned forward to direct himself in the captain's direction. 'Are you still part of the torchwood institute?' Jack's face turned, now with an almost serious manner. 'I am.' He said plainly, not giving away any more.

'Why did they send you here?'

'What makes you think that I was sent here by torchwood?'

'Who did send you here then?'

'Fine, but if they ask you forced it out of me. Your old pal Greyhound 6 sent me here.' The Doctor threw his shoulders back, his posture now straight. 'Martha? What do UNIT want from Apalapucia?' Lillian noticed a change in pitch when he mentioned that name. Maybe she was an old girlfriend of his? The thought lingered.

'Information. With all that's going on, it's only a matter of time before earth gets targeted. Apalapucia has been sanctioned as an archive for all things surrounding the initial incident, so naturally UNIT want answers. And from what I've found, earth might as well be wearing a fluorescent sign saying kick me.' Jack took another bite out of his apple, leaving the Doctor on the edge of his seat.

'How could you have possibly calculated that?'

'I sent a copy of as many records of recent reports I could get a hold of, back to earth and UNIT processed them. That's what they came up with, whatever is out there is targeting planets with a history of, or present human colonies. It's only logical that they'll trace them back to their source.' The Doctor stood up and paced the small space nervously, trying to think.

Lillian turned back to the holographic projector's frame. By pressing a series of random buttons she managed to turn it on. Nothing particularly interesting came up on it, only a generic home screen. She watched the words 'Base: AI' appear. 'Why is it called AI?' She asked to no one specific.

'It means Apalapucia one. The I is Roman numerals.' It was Jack that answered and she scowled instantly. She was eleven not stupid, she knew what Roman numerals were.

'Theres more than one base?' She asked curiously, trying to understand.

'There's more archives on this planet. This ones purely human colonies only.' Lillian cocked her head in thought, she concentrated so much on the thought in her head that it made the Doctor stop pacing and look at her instead. 'What's going on inside that lovely mind of yours Lillian?' She raised her head, but her eyes still looked to the floor pensively. 'Well...It's just that- nevermind.' She shook her head in dismissal. 'No, go on, please?' He crouched down to her height so she felt more comfortable talking to him. 'Well, hasn't this planet got a human colony?' The Doctor's eyes widened with a sudden realisation, but it was too late.

A siren blared an ear-splitting sound from every direction. 'Something's wrong!' Jack tried to shout over the noise of the siren, which was now in time to a pulsating red light that flooded the room. The Doctor's first instinct was to find out what was going on, but he saw Lillian desperately covering her ears with her hands, an expression of fear bathed in the red flashes. 'We need to get to the tardis!' He yelled to Jack who nodded and ran over to Lillian and picked her up, as if she were a toddler. With her in one arm and his sonic blaster held by the other. She would have protested if she could, but instead buried her face into his thick coat, hoping that it wasn't any little girl-eating aliens attacking.

There was screaming coming from the end of the corridor where everyone had been busy collecting data. Jack felt Lillian curl her fingers tighter to his coat. 'Not that way!' The Doctor yelled over the siren and ran down to the other end of the corridor. 'Is there another way out?' He asked Jack loudly who nodded and led the way down a narrower corridor. 'Over here!'

It wasn't long before they were outside and Jack placed Lillian down on the floor. 'Somethings coming!' Jack yelled as the Doctor flicked out his sonic screwdriver and aimed it at the door's locking mechanism until it closed with a satisfying click.

No one noticed the shadows of the colonnades, the way that all of them would disappear in the flashes of red light, except tardis threw open it's doors as Lillian ran towards it. The Doctor shot his head in her direction and saw it.

The shadow moved, it moved towards Lillian, chasing her. Knowing exactly what was happening he yelled after her in alarm. 'Lillian!' The shadow was at her heels, she wasn't even aware of them, she just knew she had to get to the tardis, if she was inside it she would be safe. It was like nothing else could save her.

She made one last effort to jump into the open doors, but so did the shadow. Jack turned around and cursed under his breath as the tardis closed her doors abruptly. Lillian was inside, safe. Even though she couldn't hear it, she could feel it warping, with her inside, alone. She screamed, clutching onto the blue doors as the world around her started to disappear.

'Doctor!'

'Lillian!' He cried back, but the tardis had dematerialized completely, leaving nothing but empty space where his blue box used to be. 'Little Lillian.' He whispered to himself, both his hearts aching with a strong sense of loss. Jack grabbed his arm. 'What was that?' He demanded, keeping his distance from the disappearing shadows of the colonnades. But The Doctor was still, his gaze staring off into the distance. 'She saved her.' He whispered to himself.

'What?' Jack ran his hands nervously through his hair, his sonic blaster still locked in between his fingers. 'The tardis, she saved Lillian from them.' He turned his head so fast that the movement would have pulled a muscle, if it had been anyone else. 'From what?' Jack felt like he was repeating himself, and this was neither the time nor the place for games. The words slipped from the Doctor's lips like a poison.

'Vashta Nerada.'


End file.
